Important Italian silver figural Sabbath lamp, probably Venice or Padua, circa 1775

the twelve-spouted body chased with swags of flowers and shellwork and with a finial in the form of a winged serpent with tail in its mouth, the rim applied with standing figures of Moses, David, a priest, Solomon, Jacob, Aaron, and Isaac, spaced by clusters of three flowerheads forming anchors for the four chains suspended from a canopy with matching chasing, the links of the chain formed as tri-form cartouches, apparently unmarked.

Probably Davide Graziadio Viterbi, Chief Rabbi of Padua (retired 1867)
Descended within the Viterbi family of Padua from at least the middle of the 19th century, to the present owner.

A somewhat similar Sabbath lamp, also Italian late 18th century, is part of the Harry G. Friedman collection at the Jewish Museum, New York (illustrated and described in Abram Kanof, Jewish Ceremonial Art and Religious Observance).  This museum example is mounted with the following figures: Sacrifice of Isaac, Jacob's dream, Samson, Moses, Aaron, David, and Solomon.

Another figural lamp with more secular decorations is in the collection of Congregation Emanu-El, New York, see Cissy Grossman 'A Temple Treasury', item 86, pp. 102-3. The sea monsters from which the lamp hangs relate to the winged serpent at the base of the offered lamp. 

Most of the figures have been re mounted, otherwise good.
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